Jakarta. Indonesia has attracted more than 9 million foreign travelers as of August this year, but these figures were still below the pre-Covid levels.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that nearly 9.1 million foreigners visited Indonesia in January-August 2024. Data showed that Indonesia’s international tourism had only started to bounce back in 2023 or after the country entirely lifted the Covid-19 restrictions.

After a steep fall in 2021, Indonesia’s foreign tourist figures hit nearly 2.8 million in January-August 2022 and then soared to almost 7.6 million in the same 8-month period the following year. The current cumulative international tourist figures soared by 20.38 percent and have crossed the 9 million mark.

“This is the highest number of international tourist visits we have ever recorded in the January-August period since 2020. … But the figures are still relatively lower than the pre-pandemic levels,” BPS’ acting head Amalia Widyasanti told a press briefing on Tuesday.

As many as 10.7 million international tourists visited Indonesia in January-August 2019, BPS reported.

Indonesia’s international tourist numbers reached 1.3 million visitors in August 2024 alone, up by 2.23 percent on a month-to-month basis. The August numbers also marked an 18.3 percent year-on-year rise. 

The foreigners coming to Indonesia in August were mostly Malaysians, reaching 188,800 people, seconded by Australians (153,700) and Chinese nationals (126,100). Australians favored visiting Indonesia via Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport. Their Malaysian and Chinese counterparts, however, mainly entered the country via the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport which primarily serves the Jakarta metropolitan area. The average foreign tourist also stayed in Indonesia for almost 8.3 nights that month.

Although international tourist figures had not beat the pre-Covid levels, BPS data showed that Indonesians were back to traveling to other parts of the country just like before the pandemic. In January-August, Indonesia recorded 674.6 million travels made by domestic tourists. This already surpassed the 2019 figures during which Indonesia recorded nearly 472.2 million domestic travelers in the first 8 months of that year.